The business owners along St. Clair West lived through years of transit disruption, but the ones that came through say they're thriving.

John Paul Deleo ( light grey shirt) and his brothers Franco ( blue checkered) Alessandro ( pink shirt) and James ( dark grey shirt) say that during the St. Clair West streetcar construction they worked to improve their business online and in store and emerged better for it, doing much more business.
Rene Johnston/Toronto Star

Driving along St. Clair Avenue West on a cold weekday in December, Margaret Smith waves at some empty storefronts and the new money-lending businesses in her neighbourhood that she says are the result of gridlock.

“No one factor will kill retail but a whole bunch of things came together,” says Smith.

The Great Recession of 2008 didn’t help. Some local businesses were already marginal when the recession hit. But unending construction and gridlock have played a role too, in Smith’s estimation.

Although St. Clair Avenue West remains vibrant, with restaurants and stores drawing patrons from across the city, too many storefronts sit empty.

The project took much, much longer than planned – about six years from 2004 to 2010 – in part because of a legal challenge by residents. And while it made it easier for streetcars to zip along St. Clair, it has made it harder for cars and trucks to navigate, including delivery trucks and emergency vehicles.

Especially during rush hour, drivers along St. Clair West can find themselves trapped single-file in a lineup that doesn’t seem to budge and in front of them, confusing signage that permits u-turns that are illegal almost everywhere else.

Businesses, most of them independently owned, suffered mightily during the construction. Customers tell business owners they don’t want to tackle St. Clair Ave. W. by car to get to them.

“The cash-and-carry business is completely gone. Maybe one person walks down in a day, two at the most,” says Hannah Waszkun, owner of Verdi Florist on St. Clair West, near Prospect Cemetery.

But in addition to hardship, business owners along St. Clair and in other areas of the city that have survived say that they have also realized unexpected benefits.

Waszkun says she managed to keep her most loyal customers, and her business online has taken up the slack.

The most recent project – fixing the streetcar rails from Queen Street East to Victoria Park along Kingston Road – just ended. During the roadwork, only one lane was open, creating gridlock not just on Kingston Road, but on Queen Street East in the Beaches and along Gerrard Street.

“Businesses seem to understand that one year, they can put up with it, it’s to make things better. But when it becomes several years in a row, that’s when businesses see that people have changed their shopping patterns permanently,” says Katya Nosko, owner of The Great Escape Bookstore on Kingston Road.

She estimates her business has fallen off between 35 and 50 per cent as a result of the successive years of upheaval.

The upside of the story is that the local businesses worked together and, with Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon, Ward 32 (Beaches-East York), won some important upgrades from the city, including new sidewalks, benches and trees to beautify the area and improve access for pedestrians.

“What it’s allowed us to do is pull together in ways that we may not have done before,” says Nosko.

The businesses on St. Clair West also won a concession – transit proof-of-purchases are good for two hours in the area. So you can travel there from any part of the city and as long as you head home within two hours, you don’t have to pay a return fare.

The city has been historically bad when it comes to co-ordinating capital infrastructure, but that is changing, says Edward Birnbaum, executive assistant to Coun. McMahon.

Partly as a result of experiences in other neighbourhoods, the city now has a major capital infrastructure co-ordination office.

Because of that, the work carried out along Kingston Road was actually quicker and less disruptive than it otherwise would have been.

“We’re seeing projects done in tandem more than they were in the past,” said Birnbaum.

The city does not provide tax breaks to businesses disrupted by repair work. An attempted class action suit by businesses on St. Clair West was unsuccessful.

“It’s a capital upgrade. It’s the city paying to improve the area and it’s part of the cost of being in the city,” is the reasoning, said Birnbaum.

“It’s something that has been investigated a lot. Rather than doing that, we try to get the work done as fast as we can and try to give as many benefits as we can to the neighbourhood. It’s always difficult when construction happens, but we tend to see a rebound when construction finishes.”

John Paul Deleo of Tre Mari Bakery on St. Clair West says the construction killed foot traffic in his family’s store. Deleo and his three brothers began to wonder how they would hold on to the business – an Italian bakery and deli – founded in 1960 by their grandfather, Vincent Deleo, 93.

“When business is down, you can’t stop and just sulk. You have to think, ‘Things are different now, how are we going to rebuild?’” says Deleo.

With fewer customers, Deleo and his brothers had a lot of time on their hands. They built up the store’s presence online and improved the in-store experience. They scraped and stained wood and painted. They took down a half-wall. They expanded the deli section from eight feet to 36 feet. They perfected existing recipes and began carrying more specialty products, including gluten-free pastas and specialty cooking oils.

Today their lunch business is double what it was before the transit work began; 2012 was a great year and 2013 is looking awesome, says Deleo.

He tells customers that the best way to get to St. Clair West is by public transit, although there is a lot of inexpensive city-owned Green P parking in the area.

“The truth is, it’s not that bad. You get used to it. It’s just a new St. Clair,” says Deleo. It’s a bonus to him that the streetcar, unhampered by car traffic, makes it possible for him to get around the city faster.

Up the street from Verdi Flowers, Connie Lamanna, owner of Ontario Fashion Textiles, has improved her storefront and is renovating the space inside her store, which sells fabric and materials for crafts.

Business has recently started picking up again, with new moms who love to craft moving into the new condo developments going up along the street.

“The business association is really doing a good job promoting the area,” says Lamanna.

Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins says improving public transportation draws prosperity, even if the construction is difficult to get through.

“We try to work with our businesses because we know it’s difficult for them. We do know that when it’s finished, it brings revitalization.”

She says she gets requests every week from developers who want to use images of the new light rail transit system being built along Eglinton Avenue to attract buyers for the condos along the route.

“They know people are buying just for that reason,” says Aikins.

Still, the results don’t please everyone.

Smith believes that Toronto under former mayor David Miller was working towards eliminating cars in the downtown. But the city isn’t ready for anything that radical.

“The TTC system isn’t good enough to eliminate cars. The city is making their own gridlock,” says Smith.

Jeff Gillan is a member of the board of the Corso Italia Business Improvement Association (BIA), whose wife owns Carmen’s Designs Children and Carmen’s Designs Women on St. Clair West, catering to the market for special occasion clothing for women and children.

He and his wife, Carmen Romao, say business in their stores is down at least 25 per cent.

The good news – and the bad news – is that they own the building.

“The majority of our customers come by car and they can’t get here because the traffic jam is so bad,” says Gillan.

“We could move our business but no one wants to rent.”

Romao points out that several businesses on the street have been for rent for months, with no takers.

Gillan says they’ve been forced to put their staff of six on part time hours.

“We can’t pay them for a full week anymore.”

Smith thinks the businesses on St. Clair are putting a brave face on a bad situation.

“They can’t talk about the disaster on St. Clair that they live in because they have to make a living here,” she says.

Smith has lived in the area since 1973, and says the congestion is now the worst it’s ever been.

She says that Toronto put dedicated streetcar lanes onto St. Clair in 1913, also against the wishes of residents. In 1926 the city began pulling the dedicated lanes out, completing the job in 1933.

More on thestar.com

We value respectful and thoughtful discussion. Readers are encouraged to flag comments that fail to meet the standards outlined in our
Community Code of Conduct.
For further information, including our legal guidelines, please see our full website
Terms and Conditions.